Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: straffo on November 23, 2000, 09:28:00 AM

Title: Happy Thanks what ?
Post by: straffo on November 23, 2000, 09:28:00 AM
I wish you an happy Thanksgiving ...

But I was speaking with some french friend of mine and we have no clue on what Thanksgiving is about (except mass murder of Turkey  (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/wink.gif))

Can one of you US guy give me the origin of this célébration ?
Title: Happy Thanks what ?
Post by: Dowding on November 23, 2000, 09:31:00 AM
A 'Christmas before Christmas' is how I've always seen it.

I think we should have a similar holiday called 'British Empire Day' where we celebrate all the different foods we nicked from around the world.  (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/biggrin.gif)
Title: Happy Thanks what ?
Post by: StSanta on November 23, 2000, 09:58:00 AM
It's something about how some indians saved som,e white dudes, and to pay them back, the friends of the white dudes occupied idian land and killed off drones of um.

Either that or something weird like family values.

 (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/biggrin.gif)

------------------
StSanta
9./JG 54 "Grünherz"
while(!bishRookQueue.isEmpty() && loggedOn()){
30mmDeathDIEDIEDIE(bishRookQueue.removeFront());
System.out.println("LW pilots are superior");
myPlane.performVictoryRoll();
}
Title: Happy Thanks what ?
Post by: AKDejaVu on November 23, 2000, 11:11:00 AM
Thanksgiving is much more difficult to explain than.. let's say... the 4th of July (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/wink.gif)

AKDejaVu
Title: Happy Thanks what ?
Post by: easymo on November 23, 2000, 11:41:00 AM
 Thanksgiving.

 Early Americans were so happy about escaping the rotting decay, known as Europe. That they threw a party.
Title: Happy Thanks what ?
Post by: Kieren on November 23, 2000, 01:31:00 PM
I am quickly becoming an easymo fan.  (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)
Title: Happy Thanks what ?
Post by: Dowding on November 23, 2000, 04:55:00 PM
 
Quote
Early Americans were so happy about escaping the rotting decay, known as Europe.

And lived happily ever after in a peaceful and tolerant utopia after that?

Title: Happy Thanks what ?
Post by: StSanta on November 23, 2000, 06:08:00 PM
easymo, you mean European rejects who couldn't hack it at home and had to leave?

 (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/biggrin.gif)

------------------
StSanta
9./JG 54 "Grünherz"
while(!bishRookQueue.isEmpty() && loggedOn()){
30mmDeathDIEDIEDIE(bishRookQueue.removeFront());
System.out.println("LW pilots are superior");
myPlane.performVictoryRoll();
}
Title: Happy Thanks what ?
Post by: easymo on November 23, 2000, 08:20:00 PM
 Considering the perils involved in an Atlantic crossing, at that time, not to mention the odds of surviving the first winter. Id would have to say, the ones with no balls stayed behind.

[This message has been edited by easymo (edited 11-23-2000).]
Title: Happy Thanks what ?
Post by: Toad on November 23, 2000, 08:22:00 PM
Well, Dowding, there's still a h*ll of a lot more people immigrating than emigrating. Can't be too awful bad.

Santa, seems those rejects turned out OK after all. You guys keep telling us we run the world!

 (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/biggrin.gif)
Title: Happy Thanks what ?
Post by: Snoopi on November 24, 2000, 12:27:00 AM
U.S. Thanksgiving as I understand it.....

People who got sucked in by advertising, or because their religion was not liked, left Europe in leaky, cold, small boats.

Many died on the way there.

They arrived in America and discovered that it gets cold there. Duh.

Instead of going home and dying in route,
they chose to stay.

The natives helped them to grow local crops and taught them to survive.
After the bountiful harvest they had a big party to celebrate.

Later the settlers took the native land in a quest for more farmland and killed most of the natives.

Or something like that.   (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/biggrin.gif)

In the U.K. and Canada (maybe others), where thanksgiving is held close to Arbor D in the U.S., it's just a farm harvest celebration tradition, pure and simple.


Regards,
Snoopi


[This message has been edited by Snoopi (edited 11-24-2000).]
Title: Happy Thanks what ?
Post by: Sparks on November 24, 2000, 03:50:00 AM
I used to live near where the first settlers arrived (Outer Banks of North Carolina) and believe me they needed to give thanks for surviving there before it was developed - swamp, a few alligators, snakes and mosquitoes the size of Spitfires.!!

Dowding - it's like the fens but a lot hotter and full of things that bite  (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/biggrin.gif)

I liked it though  (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif) - amazing what 300yrs can do ....

Title: Happy Thanks what ?
Post by: straffo on November 24, 2000, 04:22:00 AM
Will dig a little on the Net to get the info
Thank anyway all
Title: Happy Thanks what ?
Post by: straffo on November 24, 2000, 04:36:00 AM
I'm just a little stupid ...
 http://www.thanksgiving.org/ (http://www.thanksgiving.org/)
Title: Happy Thanks what ?
Post by: Dowding on November 24, 2000, 06:33:00 AM
Toad - my point isn't that America is god-awful (like anywhere else it has its good and bad points  (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/wink.gif)), just that (some) of those settlers went to America on the back of prejudice in Europe, but then exercised the same prejudice (and then genoside) that they were trying to escape.

If you were black or a native, history tells us that America could hardly be called the 'land of the free' and was indeed as bad as Europe. It is also historically true to say that 'coloured' people were second class citizens well into this century, something that was endorsed by the institutions of the day.

Although I'm sure it's easier to see things as black and white, history is rarely that clear cut. Many of those sainted settlers were as bad as their European contemporaries. To sanctify those early colonists and demonise the continent they came from is a little historically dubious.

Also, not sure on this, but wasn't there an English settlement at Jamestown years before the Pilgrim Fathers arrived? I was reading how it was sabotaged by Spanish 'spies' - there was lots of unexplained sickness and death, which has recently been traced to certain Spanish sympathisers.

But I'm sure you know all this already.  (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)
Title: Happy Thanks what ?
Post by: funked on November 24, 2000, 08:00:00 AM
It's pretty simple - a day to give thanks to God for all the good things.  When you've just finished harvest and you realize you are set for the coming winter, it was a nice time to say "WOOHOO" and have a little party.
Title: Happy Thanks what ?
Post by: Toad on November 24, 2000, 09:31:00 AM
Dowding, don't even start.

Or I'll reply like this.   (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)

Quote
Originally posted by Dowding:
Toad - my point isn't that America is god-awful (like anywhere else it has its good and bad points   (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/wink.gif)), just that (some) of those settlers went to America on the back of prejudice in Europe, but then exercised the same prejudice (and then genoside) that they were trying to escape.

Guess it's just hard to take the "Europe" out of the European.  (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/biggrin.gif)

Happy Holidays!!
Title: Happy Thanks what ?
Post by: Igloo on November 24, 2000, 01:49:00 PM
How did one party become a tradition?

Musta been one heckofva party.

Our Thanksgiving here in Canada is in October.  Why? Dunno.  Kinda dumb thing to celebrate.  White guys killing off the natives and taking their land.

------------------
Squadron Leader, Igloo.
C/O RCAF 411 Squadron - County of York (http://www.trueorigins.net/411rcaf)

"Problems cannot be solved with the same awareness that created them" - Albert Einstein[/i]
Title: Happy Thanks what ?
Post by: Rickenbacker on November 25, 2000, 11:21:00 AM
Just remember that you may be american in everything else, but when you go to the bathroom, you're a-peein.

 (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/biggrin.gif)

 (http://hem.bredband.net/rickenbacker/images/ricksig.jpg)
Title: Happy Thanks what ?
Post by: bloom25 on November 26, 2000, 01:23:00 AM
The general explaination for Thanksgiving is the Indian banquet thing.  Thanksgiving wasn't actually a national holiday until around the 1860s.  (Note: My history book is not around, so I may be totally wrong here, but I think this is true.)  Abraham Lincoln made it a national holiday during the Civil War years as a way to unify the country and boost morale.  The Pilgrim and Indian story is just the reasoning behind it.

(Please feel free to correct me if you find out exactly what the true story is.  (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/biggrin.gif) )



------------------
bloom25
THUNDERBIRDS
Title: Happy Thanks what ?
Post by: AKDejaVu on November 26, 2000, 01:41:00 AM
A quote from  http://www.thanksgiving.org/2us.html (http://www.thanksgiving.org/2us.html)

 
Quote
1789 Washington's first proclamation after his inauguration as the nation's first president in 1789 declared November 26, 1789, as a national day of "thanksgiving and prayer."
 
1800s  The annual presidential thanksgiving proclamations ceased for 45 years in the early 1800s.
 
1863  President Abraham Lincoln resumed the tradition in 1863.
 
November
26, 1941
President Roosevelt signed the bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. Because two years out of every seven have five Thursdays in November, some states for the next 15 years celebrated on their own on the last Thursday. Since 1956, the fourth Thursday in November has been observed by every state.
Title: Happy Thanks what ?
Post by: Eagler on November 26, 2000, 11:56:00 AM
It's a dedicated day to give thanks for all of our blessings and good fortune.

Something none of us do enough, we'd rather whine and cry for what we don't have..

Eagler

Title: Happy Thanks what ?
Post by: Dowding on November 26, 2000, 06:02:00 PM
 
Quote
Something none of us do enough, we'd rather whine and cry for what we don't have..

Or run to the nearest lawyer prepared to prostitute themselves by instigating litigation over a 'dangerously hot pickle' [previous thread].

Only in America? For now, maybe, but the way things are going over here...

 
Quote
Guess it's just hard to take the "Europe" out of the European.

My sentiments exactly! But, perhaps you mean it's hard to remove the base instincts and the nasty parts of human nature from people? We ain't that different really (although it's comforting to think we are  (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/wink.gif)).

It ain't un-patriotic to recognise there were/are 'evil' elements in our societies. There is no progress without objective re-appraisal. I'd be the first to say that Europeans have a lot to answer for, and did horrific things in the name of power/territory. Human nature is the same the world over; the differences are exagerated and a little bit of ignorance is involved too. All we can do is avoid those mistakes in future.

Thanks-giving sounds like a great idea, by the way. We don't get enough public holidays in this country.  (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)